Waze GPS Navigation App - A Worthy Alternative To Google Maps On Indian Roads ?
Most of the motorists in India may not be aware of the GPS navigation app Waze, but surprisingly it has been around when iOS and Android were still in a nascent stage of development. Originally developed by an Israeli Programmer Ehud Shabtai in the year 2006 as a crowd-funded project to provide information on traffic conditions in Israel, Waze was acquired by Google in the year 2013.
Like many other navigation apps, Waze also provides the best possible route options to motorists in reaching their destinations. But feature that makes it unique from other apps is its ability to show the quickest route based on Crowd Sourced information. Unlike other navigation apps which uses their own Database to derive quickest route information, this app gets real-time data like traffic snarls, closed roads, police trap or activity, accidents etc. from the Waze App Users or Wazers as they are commonly called and prepares accurate route option. Waze is a kind of GPS application with embedded social networking feature that enables Wazers to alert fellow drivers about various traffic conditions as well as send them messages too.
Features
- Waze is a free app.
- The Wazers can provide real-time insights like traffic, police activity, accidents, speed cameras, construction activity, etc. on the map which helps the app to build quickest route options for the Wazers.
- It has a very sleek interface and the Wazers can customize it as per their choice. They can set their moods and color schemes for a unique experience.
- It can be connected to Google Calendar and Facebook. If there is any calendar event linked to a destination, then the app notifies the users the best time to leave the house to reach the destination based on the traffic conditions.
- Waze can be integrated with music apps like Spotify and Amazon Music too.
- The app also has a speedometer option. When enabled, it alerts the users about the speed limit when they over speed.
- One of the interesting features of the app is the Celebrity voice navigation option. Using this option, the Wazers can set the navigation voice to that of a particular celebrity like Colonel Sanders , Arnold Schwarzenegger or Morgan Freeman. Alternatively Wazers can set their own voice commands for navigation too.
- The users can also share their drive information and the ETA of arrival at destination with their friends through the app.
- Waze is available for both Android and Apple devices. It is also supported on Android Auto and Apple Car play.
- The app also has the option to show location of Petrol Stations on the route map along with prices of fuel at each location.
- Wazers can use voice commands in the app with Google Assistant.
Is Waze better than Google Maps ?
Waze is a fun app to use. Where it scores over Google Maps is its real time reporting feature which enables fellow drivers to accurately know about traffic conditions. The point where it fails to score over Google Maps is that it cannot be used in offline mode. It always requires an active data connection to show the options accurately. Also, the information on Waze app is focussed on Driving only where as Google Maps shows navigation options for Driving, Cycling, Walking and using Public Transport.
Conclusion
Waze is very popular in many countries. And it has a strong community of users too. However, in India, even though the app has been around for quite sometime, people still prefer Google Maps as it is considered to be the Gold Standard for GPS navigation. Given that Indian roads are notorious for traffic snarls and incidents, Waze can become a very handy tool for navigation especially in cities. All it needs is the drivers to hook on to the app while driving and constantly enrich the content with real-time information.